Little Step - In search of pampering...

Please don't think that I stopped after just one week! In fact, I was whisked away for a fun few days with Brad and the kids and actually enjoyed a few days break from my computer. But I have come back home to deal with Mt Washmore and the mouldy loaf of bread that was accidentally left out on the bench when we left...

So I am feeling in need of some pampering today! This is quick and easy pampering. Challenge today is to grab some moisturising cream, of any description. Sit down for 5 minutes and give your hands and feet a soothing massage with moisturiser. Close your eyes and take some deep breaths... enjoy soft skin and soothed muscles... for a couple of minutes, at least!

And now that you are lovely and de-stressed, can I ask you to come over and help with the washing? It is a rainy day today... 4 piles of washing to do... oh, joy!

Little Step - Saying 'Yes'!

Yesterday was definitely a tough Little Step. I wasn't entirely successful at it -- I have put off my big commitment, but somehow couldn't quite say 'no' altogether.

But today's is going to be much more fun... if we let it. Today's challenge is to say 'Yes' to something that you may normally not make the effort for. I think that today I am going to say Yes when Naomi asks to go to the park... I know she will ask. She asks most days. And I usually say no - it just seems like too much effort.

But today I am going to see her beautiful face light up, and the excitement bubble over, for a simple outing, and the joy of sliding down the slippery slide... just because I said 'Yes'.

Take a deep breath, let go of the negative thoughts and just say 'yes' when someone suggests something fun, or out of the ordinary today... and enjoy it!

Cheap thrills...

I have said it before, and I will say it again... the front load washing machine has been the best investment we have made in a long time. It is worth it's (considerable) weight in gold. Not only does it wash well, take a large load, and use far less water....

the entertainment value is priceless!

But do be sure to get one with a child-proof setting for all the buttons....

Happy Birthday Ryan

A year ago today I was enjoying a 'mini break' holiday... in hospital, while gazing at our sweet newborn boy.

Happy Birthday, Ryan! I don't know where time flies to, but we love you more every day.

A car-shaped cake and plenty of presents (courtesy of grandparents!), made our little boy the happiest kid on the block. And Naomi very kindly offered to help him with all the eating and unwrapping that NEEDED to be done...

Sharing...

At the end of the day, parenting is hard work. Little kids are tiring, physically, mentally, emotionally. But then they go and say something which makes you think... maybe I am getting something right here, after all.....

Conversation today, after we told Naomi that she and Daddy are going to the Hi-5 concert next weekend...

Naomi - "Wow! That is great! Who is coming?"

Daddy - "Just you and me, Blossom - a special day out together."

Naomi - "But what about Ryan?"

Daddy - "We don't have a ticket for Ryan, honey - just one for me, and one for you."

Naomi - "But... I could share my ticket with Ryan... then he could come too!"

Oh poor neglected little blog...

You are one of my New Year's resolutions... I promise!

I had such a crazy November and December. Many other Etsy sellers talk about the 'holiday rush'. I was gently sceptical.

Well, I rushed! Not huge in volume of sales, but I got a couple of large orders for children's clothes for shops in my local area, and aprons for corporate Christmas gifts... and quite a few handbags, as well as busy busy markets! So, for me, it was a definite rush!

We had a couple of weeks off, visited Brad's parents in Sydney for Christmas, and I am now very enthusiastic to start a new year in life, in love, in my relationship with God, and in my little businesses..... yes, there is another one! Eeek! Ideas just keep popping into my head, and I can't NOT follow them through! Then Brad says... wow, that turned out well... why don't you put it in the 'shop'?!? And so yet another business begins!

Will tell all in the next few weeks... but watch out tomorrow for a great January deal at Sasha Sews!

August Giveaway - Travel Pack

In honour of our upcoming holiday (woo hoo!! - I just discovered that the resort has a KIDS CLUB!! And they take children from 6 weeks up!), the August giveaway has a travel theme.

You can win yourself a sweet little make-up travel pouch, which has a zip closure and is made from lovely fresh pink poppies fabric.

And to make it really useful, I am adding a travel size tube of "Relax" scented moisturising cream, and 2 handy dandy travel-size liquids containers (perfect for shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, washing liquid, shower gel etc). They come with a set of labels, so you won't forget what the goo inside actually is! (Don't want you washing your hair with the sunscreen).

Of course, if you don't think you'll win this give-away, you can always acquire your own zip make-up travel pouch, over at Sasha Sews!

You know the deal - leave a comment, tweet / blog / FB about this give-away, and leave a comment for each extra entry. Oh, and anyone who buys something from Sasha Sews will get 5 free entries to this giveaway too!

Random.org will draw a winner next Wednesday, 19 August - while lazing on a beach with a cocktail. Mmmmm.... strawberry daiquiri. Yum!

And speaking of give-aways, you see this here handy craft tote?? I WON IT!!!! Yes, I entered a bloggy give-away over at Life of Lyssie and I won! Oh, I have such big plans for this tote. It is going to be toted to my patchwork group every single week........ But I am going to have to keep it under lock and key. Brad wants to 'tote' his drinks and snacks to work in it, and Naomi has already started 'toting' her hair ribbons, clips and brush around in it!

Market fun!

For all of you who live too far away to come to Yungaburra, here is a quick photo of my stall. I am going to streamline for next month, and just focus on some beautiful bags that I have in the pipeline, together with the children's aprons and bibs.

It was a bad weather day, overcast, then sunny, then raining, then windy! But still good fun. And yes, that lovely lady in the photo with me is my dedicated Mum -- I know she looks like a sister, and she has a far more active social life than I do!!

Technical Issues...

My printer was making funny noises when I tried to print this morning. I went to investigate. Do you think this will be covered under warranty?

More to the point - what's for dinner? What can I whip up with a tomato, a hamburger bun and a whole chicken ... all of the plastic varierty!

Tea Party - Small Town style!

We have had a very busy few days - first a family dinner in The Big Smoke (mmm... night away in luxury room at affordable price... more about that later!).

Then, being a country gal, I couldn't miss the Mareeba Rodeo, which is on this weekend. I didn't get any great shots of the rodeo events, but we DID take Naomi on her first ever show ride... the spinning tea cups. She looked very serious most of the time, but when I got her to wave to Daddy as we went round, she waved and gave him a big grin! Afterwards she declared that it was fun, and has been asking me all day if she can have another ride on the Teapot Machine.

And because I am an equal opportunity Mamma, here is a shot of Ryan, laughing at his Mummy and sister spinning around in a large blue teacup.

July Give-away - Right as Rain

Here it is - believe me, the July give-away is worth the wait!

In the spirit of the huge Christmas In July sale that is on at Etsy for the next 2 weeks, I am featuring a delicious Etsy store, for the July give-away.

Did you miss out on the Total Pamper Box? Feel like you could do with some pampering of the yummy products kind? Well, look no further. Right As Rain Creations is the store with all your body products catered for.

I love the sound of the Chai bath soap
Lavender skin salve, perfect for gardeners and those of us with very dry skin (like me).

And who can resist Strawberry Cheesecake flavoured lip balm?!?

All of the products are handmade by Megan, with love. And I am giving away a $10 gift certificate for her store!

All you have to do to enter is to head on over to Etsy, have a browse, and come back here to tell me the name of a store that you love. I am always on the look-out for other beautiful handcrafting stores, so tell me which ones you have found - and what it sells.

Extra entries will be given for blogging, facebooking or twittering about this give-away (stop back here to leave a separate comment for each time you do one of these).

Have fun! The prize will be drawn on Sunday, 12 July (Australian time), and the winner announced that day. Happy browsing - I hope you find something lovely!

It's my Birthday - and you are getting the presents!

Thank you for your lovely happy birthday wishes. In fact, the actual day is today - 29 June. We celebrated yesterday, though, as Sweet Hubby leaves for work at an unbearable hour of the morning, and I wasn't going to do present opening with my eyes still gritty with sleep!

But today I turn the big 3-2. Yep, my twenties is fast receding over the horizon in the rear-vision mirror. Sigh. I have a good friend who describes himself as being "29G". He has been 29, 29A, 29B, 29C ....

However, I recently read that a survey showed women in their 30's to be the happiest, most self-assured, and content, of all the age groups surveyed.

So today I have happily, with great assurance and supreme contentment added the FINAL ITEM to this month's Total Pamper Box giveaway.

A delicious tube of bath and shower gel, from Maddigan Australia. Even the design on the tube looks gorgeous!

So the Total Pampering Box now looks like this. This is the last item to be added to the box. A winner will be chosen on 1 July (Australian time), by random.org, from all of the entries received this month. So you only have a couple of days to get those last entries in, for the chance to win it all!

Note to self ...

Don't turn your back on the sweet-natured baby when he is happily sitting in his bouncer. Not even to peel and chop veges for dinner.

He is likely to be 'raided' by his very cheeky 2-year old sister.

And definitely don't take photos, if you are trying to convince the 2-year old not to put mini traffic cones on her brother's head.

Our days in the sun

I just know you have all been waiting with bated breath for a peek at the much-mentioned beach photos from our weekend away.

We spent the night at Newell Beach, with our good friend Heather and her little son Harry, who is the same age as Naomi. We met when the kids were just weeks old, through a mother & baby group run by our local community health centre. That group, and the special people in it, saved my sanity when Naomi was a baby. They still meet every Friday, back in Cairns - I miss you, girls!

Anyway, enough fluff. Here are the photos.

Sweet Hubby and Miss Naomi.

A pram with a view.

Looking for shells.

Friends forever.

Thank you, Heather for a lovely weekend, lovely beach, good talk, good friends and good chocolate - what more could you want??

Tagged!

by Aimee at Aimee's Land. I hope you get to know something you didn't know about me before!

8 things I am looking forward to:

1. Naomi sleeping through the night consistently (maybe by the time she is in high school!)
2. taking my sewing to sell at a local craft market in a few weeks
3. trying the Cadbury's choc-mint drinking chocolate that I bought this week
4. our holiday to the Whitsundays in August
5. a lazy afternoon of sewing and baking scones this afternoon
6. bacon & eggs cooked by Brad, for breakfast tomorrow morning
7. lots of travel when the kids have left home!!
8. my birthday next month

8 things I did yesterday:

1. Posted off my first sale from SashaSews!
2. bought a new pair of jeans on sale at Rivers
3. made fresh pasta with Naomi
4. had lunch and a cuppa with my mum
5. fed Ryan
6. surfed the web
7. cut out fabric for a new bag
8. pushed Naomi around on her bike

8 things I wish I could do:

1. knit
2. live in the UK again
3. own a cosy cottage B&B
4. own a sweet craft and books store
5. lose 5kgs!
6. be more organised
7. find a gym with Pilates and child-minding on at the same time!
8. hug my dad one more time, tell him i love him and introduce my children to their Grandad.

8 shows I watch:

1. Master Chef
2. news
3. CSI
4. Law & Order
5. Playschool
6. Bananas in Pyjamas
7. Antique Roadshow
8. any classic British comedy or period drama

People I tag:

Emma at Heart at Home

Nikki at Nikki's Notes

Kara at EskimoKissesandAirHugs

Kimberly at Raising Olives

Melody at biglittlesister

Creative storage...

We now live in a rented house. It is has some great design features and some that I wouldn't mind changing, if it belonged to me.... Brad and I love the back deck, from which we can just see the mountains, while we nibble cheese and bikkies and watch Naomi ride on her little bike.


Naomi, on the other hand, likes finding creative ways of storing all sorts of things. Just look at all the different things that can be stored in the slots of a built-in wine rack, that is very conveniently placed at 2-year old level...



A biscuit container, a plastic lid, assorted hair clips and ties, both of Mummy's house shoes (neatly placed side by side in adjoining slots). And for the record, I had to take the camera out of one of the slots to take this photo!! Every time I walk past it, I notice something different slotted in one of the boxes. A juice cup. A baby doll. Naomi's hairbrush...

And one lonely wine bottle!

What a weekend!

We had a long weekend here in Queensland, and on the Tablelands, the May long weekend is always dedicated to the Mt Garnet races and rodeo. It is about 90 minutes drive out west into the bush. Mt Garnet has a population of about 100, and about 2000 for this weekend. The rodeo, races and obligatory B & S ball brings people in from all the stations.

I love rodeo - it brings back vivid memories of childhood times spent huddled against the cold, watching the open bull riding ... or working in the Scout canteen, selling burgers to fundraise. And the music, dust and checkered shirts just make me happy - I am a country girl at heart.

This was the view of the sky over the arena, as the sun was setting behind me -- is there anything as beautiful as big sky country?

We camped the night and Naomi was thrilled to sleep in the tent.... she even slept through the music, and the mine trucks that drive through the night along the road behind the campsite!

The way I was back then.....

This meme was over at Nikki's blog. It got me reminiscing about a few years back!

1. Did you date someone from your high school? Not in Grade 12.

2. Did you marry someone from your high school? Nope. Brad and I met in a pub in London!

3. Did you carpool to school? No, mostly the school bus (we were in a rural area), but sometimes would ride along with Mum, who worked in town.

4. What kind of car did you have? I didn't. Got my first car about 4 years after high school! I think only a couple of people in our year had their own cars.

5. What kind of car do you have now? I have a 1998 Toyota Camry. It's old, but the air-con still works, which is all I need in the tropics!

6. It's Saturday night now; you're...at home watching t.v. waiting for Naomi to wake up (she wakes around 3 times a night. Snuggling on the couch with my sweetie.

7. It's Saturday night then; you're... at home with a book, music or a family board game. Or maybe staying over at my best friend's house (she lived on a farm about 30kms the other side of town to us.)

8. What kind of job did you have in high school? I worked at the local Coles Supermarket, as a checkout chick.

9. What kind of job do you have now? Full-time wife and mum. Part-time aspirer to crafty goddess. Former marine lawyer.

10. Were you a party animal? Not in high school - no opportunity! But don't ask about Uni...

11. Were you considered a flirt? Definitely not.

12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Choir. Still love to sing, but only get the opportunity in shower or to cd's now.

13. Were you a nerd? Yep, at least a bit.

14. Did you get suspended or expelled? No! Not even a detention, that I can recall. My dad was a local primary school principal. I can't imaging getting in that much trouble!

15. Can you sing the fight song? Not sure what this is.

16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)? My English teacher and music teachers were both pretty great.

17. Where did you sit during lunch? With my best friend, wherever.

18. What was your school's full name? Left blank.

19. When did you graduate? 1994

20. What was your school mascot? Didn't have one - this must be an American thing!

21. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Ummmm.... not sure. I did enjoy it lots, at the time.

22. Did you have fun at prom? Yes - despite what I now consider to be just about the most awful dress and hairstyle I could have chosen!!!

23. Do you still talk to the person you went to prom with? Yes, she was my best friend and we went together. Not many people went with a 'date', unless they were already a couple.

24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion? Possibly, if we are in the area.

25. Do you still talk to people from school? Some - the important ones.

26. School colors? Blue and maroon.

Feel free to cut and paste and do this one for yourself -- if nothing else, it is good for reminiscing!

Where do I blog?

My new friend Nikki at Nikki's Notes has tagged me to reveal where I blog from. Eeek! Well, here goes...

This is our office / my sewing room. And yes, it is pretty much always this messy! I don't get enough time to blog / sew / craft, let alone spending time actually tidying it up! Beside the sewing machine are the sweet little girl's aprons that I have been working on lately. There is a large wicker basket to the left of them (not in the photo), that is supposed to be WIP's - in fact, it's just another place for a fabric stash. As is that basket on the top shelf above the computer.

The view out the window is overlooking the front verandah and yard - which is a bit overgrown at the moment. It's just still too hot to get into the garden beds and give them the weeding they deserve.

Now, I am going to tag Kara and my sister Emma to play along and reveal their little corner of the blogging world.

WFMW - Kids parties

As previously mentioned, Naomi just turned 2 and we had a small party for her little friends, on Sunday afternoon. Here are a few of the things that I found worked for me --

1. Don't feel obliged to invite every child they know. We invited 5 children, and it was just enough to have some fun chaos, but not so many that we were frazzled and cranky by the end.

2. Keep children's ages in a similar range. This makes planning activities, and timing, much easier. Advise parents of multiple children that activities etc will be aimed at the age group of your birthday child, so that they can make alternative arrangements or bring along appropriate toys for their other children.

3. It's not rude to set a finish time, and write it on the invitations. The finish time doesn't have to be set in concrete, but it will let everyone know that you are not having an open house all day, with meals provided! We did from 2 to 4pm, with afternoon tea party food. Everyone was aware that we weren't doing lunch or an evening meal.

4. Have age appropriate activities. We recently went to a 3-year old's party where they did 'pass the parcel'. This was a disaster. 2 - 3 year olds do NOT share well, and didn't really get the concept of only opening one layer of paper on the parcel! For Naomi's party, I got some individual little art canvases from the discount store, and each child painted their own artwork. I also pre-cooked cupcakes, and iced them, then put a bowl of assorted decorations (marshmallows, lollies, sprinkles, etc) in the middle and each child decorated their own cupcake. These individual activities worked well - minimal opportunity for arguments!

5. For the butterfly cake, I ordered a half a plain vanilla sponge slab cake from our local bakery. I then just made a paper template of the basic butterfly shape, cut it out and iced it. Much less fuss than trying to bake cakes and stick them together.

Hope these tips make your next kids party a bit less stressful! For more tips, see Rocks in my Dryer.